WATSON’s Work Package 2 Progress

The tasks of Work Package 2 entitled “Socioeconomic Methodologies, Tools and Approaches for Prevention of Food Fraud” are in full progress.

Task leaders SINTEF Nord (SIN), Humboldt University of Berlin (Hub), National Technical University of Athens (NTU), Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FIB), and University College Dublin (UCD) through a series of meetings, have developed the questionnaires and the methodological approach for the interviews and data collection within WP’s tasks T2.1, T2.2, T2.3, T2.4, and T2.5.

The interviews will start in June 2023 and will be completed in September 2023. They will take place across the six supply chains covered by the project: wine, fish, meat, olive oil, honey, dairy products and cereals. Through these interviews information is expected to be gathered regarding:

• Mapping Key Actors’ Expectations for Authenticity and Traceability in Food Systems (T2.1)

• Socioeconomic Drivers of Food Fraud and Behavioural Analysis of Food Criminals (T2.2)

• GAP Analysis of Systems Used to Combat Food Fraud (T2.3)

• Food Fraud Vulnerability Assessment in EU Food Systems (T2.4)

• Social and Ethical Aspects of Systemic Innovations for Authenticity and Traceability of Food Products (T2.5)

The approach for the interviews in the six supply chains includes semi-structured personal interviews to gather information in order to choose questionnaire items (exploratory research), more structured personal interviews to gather information for the domains under research (descriptive research), group interviews (focus groups) with key players in each supply chain to make an in-depth analysis utilizing the findings of the structured personal interviews (confirmatory research).

IELab NTUA is responsible for Task 2.3: GAP Analysis of Systems Used to Combat Food Fraud and the deliverable D2.3: Guidelines for capitalizing on systemic enablers and overcoming systemic barriers to implementation of authenticity and traceability solutions in food systems.

Outcomes will be shared by the end of September.

Photo during an online session between task leaders of the work package 2.